Batting
 

I've just finished a 'Square Dance' quilt top and my sister is coming to my house in 2 days to help me put it on the frame. Should I do anything with the batting before she gets here?...take it out of the package and lay it out on the bed in the spare room?...throw it in the dryer for a few minutes?

It seems I should do something to it to take the fold marks out.

MrsBeasley

depending on how much pucker you want in your quilt, I soak my batting in warm water then spin DO NOT AGITATE I lost one by forgetting! Then put it in the dryer, then lay it out on the extra bed, you still get enough shrinkage to look like an old quilt, if you don't want to preshrink it just toss a damp bath towel in the dryer with it on warm for a few minutes then lay it out, any fold marks that remain will easily disappear once you get it on the frame

I agree with putting it in the dryer with a damp towel. Should take any folds out.

I would say it depends on what type of batting you're using. I used to use Mountain Mist Light Batting, which is polyester. I would just lay it out on a bed for a day or two to ease the wrinkles. (One time I put it in the dryer on very low heat to speed up the process and it really fluffed up the batting - big mistake!)

For the last several years I've been using Hobbs Heirloom 80/20 and I do presoak it then dry it on low heat. It relaxes the folds and wrinkles and shrinks it down some since I don't like a lot of shrinkage and puckering on my finished quilts. If you do like the puckered look on your finished quilts, then either lay it out on a spare bed for a day or two or as suggested above, throw in the dryer with a damp towel to help it relax. (doing this will still shrink it some, but not as much as it would if you did the presoak first.)

Hope this helps some! :)

I often use Hobbs 80/20 and I don't even bother with a damp towel. I just put it in the dryer on low for 10 minutes or on no-heat fluff for 20 minutes. Maybe I'm not as fussy as some, but I've never found any remaining wrinkles to interfere with quilting and finishing.

I usually use Hobbs 80/20 and throe in dryer on fluff for a while.

Here's a question that has me stumped: If I want to preshrink the batting, how would you do it when you have a front-loading HE machine? It uses a scant few inches of water so can't soak the batt there. I wound not be able to manage it in the bathtub... too heavy to try to lift and squeeze the water out.

Mary, I also have a front loader and to presoak my batting, I use the hand wash cycle. While the drum does rotate, it only goes around one slow time every 45 seconds, so it's not really agitating it at all, just moving it around once every 45 seconds very gently. I have done this many times with Hobbs 80/20 batting with no problems whatsoever. Hope this helps you some. :)